Our Favorite LGBTQ Celebs and Thought Leaders Respond to Trump’s ‘Surrender Summit’
Monday’s meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was one of the biggest disasters of his presidency so far. Trump met with Putin alone — despite decades of American policy — and denied that Russia had anything to do with influencing the 2016 election. The meeting was so disastrous, CNN’s John King said it should be called “the surrender summit.”
At the post-summit press conference, Putin said he wanted Trump to win, but he did nothing to make it so. Trump backed Putin up, saying, “I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. I don’t see any reason why Russia would interfere in the 2016 election.”
Today Trump is backtracking and now insists, “The sentence should have been, ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’ Sort of a double negative. So you can put that in, and I think that probably clarifies things pretty good by itself.”
But even with this weak faux-apology — which doesn’t even work with the full quote, as Trump’s proposed sentence runs counter to the rest of his statement — Trump has been criticized by both Republicans and Democrats.
Even die-hard Republicans like Newt Gingrich came out to criticize Trump. Paul Ryan said, “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.”
The “surrender summit” has even brought back up questions of the “pee tape,” which allegedly shows Trump watching prostitutes as they urinate on a bed previously slept on by the Obamas.
But leave it to some of our favorite LGBTQ celebrities and personalities to offer brilliant responses to the “Surrender Summit”:
CNN’s Anderson Cooper said the summit was disgraceful:
Anderson Cooper calls the Trump-Putin press conference "one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a summit in front of a Russian leader certainly that I've ever seen" https://t.co/M0guPGHxMt pic.twitter.com/8s7I3iP4pp
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) July 16, 2018
Comedian Billy Eichner brings up the last time a president was impeached:
Call me old fashioned but I personally think a President committing treason is worse than lying about a blow job.
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) July 16, 2018
He also suggested his choices for Trump’s and Pence’s replacements:
RT if you think we should impeach Trump and replace him with these two. pic.twitter.com/6RDI1wOjmy
— billy eichner (@billyeichner) July 17, 2018
Rhea Butcher of Take My Wife was insightful about how the current situation happened:
So the “president” who was the preferred pick of the Russian government which Mueller just proved interfered in the very “election” he was a candidate in, just had a closed door meeting with the leader of said interfering government.
I am a dog in hell with a cup of coffee. https://t.co/D3L4qftO9o
— rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) July 16, 2018
Isn’t *also* a major problem, as major as gerrymandering, as major as the racism that allowed his to fester, is a major disservice to the work that many, many, MANY activists across the globe have done for decades.
— rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) July 16, 2018
Hillary Clinton won the popular vote (this is individual votes, you know, how every other elected official is elected) by 3 million people. Putin tipped the scales in the winnable electoral college, and it’s bonkers to me if you can’t even admit that.
— rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) July 16, 2018
The idea that “we” on the left dislike each other on policy or approach and don’t care enough about each other will push us all into nihilism (or even further), at least the ones with enough privilege to do so. And we can’t let that happen.
— rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) July 16, 2018
And a 90 minutes closed door meeting with the guy who made it all happen? Yeah, that’s treason.
— rhea butcher (@RheaButcher) July 16, 2018
Randy Rainbow made fun of Trump’s “apology”:
Donald just fixed everything by retroactively amending the transcript of his televised statement about election meddling to read, “I don’t see any reason why it WOULDN’T be Russia,” instead of "WOULD be Russia." He also clarified that he likes to grab women by their puppies.
— Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) July 17, 2018
Alan Cumming is not impressed:
This is insane. If you buy this dog ate my homework kind of doublespeak, you deserve him. https://t.co/1i0NtxPZ8q
— Alan Cumming (@Alancumming) July 17, 2018
Wanda Sykes asked John McCain what a lot of us are thinking:
Thank you. So Senator, what are you and your party going to do about it? https://t.co/NgZTzasJnu
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) July 16, 2018
Jaboukie Young-White will celebrate if Trump is finally impeached:
yes michael pence wld become president if trump is impeached. yes he’s bad. america is in an abysmal state of moral and economic decadence that will take generations of healing to truly reverse the domestic and international destruction this country has caused. but still i twerk
— jaboukie young-white (@jaboukie) July 17, 2018
Whereas Sen. Tammy Baldwin merely speaks the truth:
Russia attacked our American democracy to interfere with our elections. This isn’t a hoax and the Special Counsel’s investigation is not a witch hunt. It has produced results w/ more indictments today and must continue. Putin directed this attack and should be held accountable.
— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (@SenatorBaldwin) July 13, 2018
Putin directed an attack on our American democracy & Russia interfered with our elections
President Trump needs to stop treating Putin like a friend and start holding him accountable
Instead of standing with Putin, the President should stand up for America and our democracy
— Sen. Tammy Baldwin (@SenatorBaldwin) July 16, 2018
Openly gay Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Sims remarks on Trump’s use of “the best words”:
That’s just not how this works. Also, wouldn’t the “world’s greatest negotiator” who uses only “the best words” know how not to screw up a difference of this unimaginable size? Yeah I know, of course he would. This is a gaslighting, back tracking, attempt to “fix” the unfixable. https://t.co/EV2x0BehgN
— Brian Sims (@BrianSimsPA) July 17, 2018
And finally, George Takei gives the famously nickname-happy Trump one of his own:
We're going to have to start calling him Benedict Donald.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 17, 2018
